(Heitzso for Gainesville, GA, @gaga http://atgaga.com responding)

We aim for a simple pricing structure that encourages families to attend, so we end up with several family groups attending as an inexpensive, fun, family outing at most of our monthly dances.
$20 family (any size, any combination)
$10 adults (somewhat in line with area pricing for contra dance, makes it easier to pay at door)
$ 5 students teen and up (nice even number, again easy for door to make change)
free for children 12 and under. free for non-dancers
I regularly offer to comp people I meet in (with their friends) but that offer is rarely taken up
so I don't worry about undercutting the dance with hordes of free comp'ed dancers.

We are a small (average 35-50) dance but with good energy and a slowly building base of
dancers who consider us their home dance. We're in our 6th year as a dance.
Roughly half of our dancers drive a distance to come (20-60 minutes) and would consider
another dance as their home dance. I try to book regional to weekend quality talent
(Toss the Possum is our next band, then George Paul & Ben Schrieber,
then ContraForce, then RushFest). So we lose money every month that I cover.
BTW, I do pay the musicians well, we have good sound in the hall, and I record multi-channel 24/48
on an RME interface, along with good dancer energy that helps to pull in good bands.
Not uncommon for us to tag team with Atlanta who dances on Fridays so a band comes in
and plays for the Atlanta dance Friday, then our dance Saturday.

The main contribution of this email may be the limited family price because it does
bring in families and that means elementary, middle, high, young adult ages at our dance.

Heitzso
http://atgaga.com



December 14, 2018 11:09 AM, "Emily Addison via Organizers" <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi fellow Shared Weight members,

I'm back wearing my CDSS hat this morning with a question that overlaps somewhat with the ideas that were shared last week. (I expect that I will be VERY quiet after this question given that there are so many ideas to pull together.)

ANYWAY: HERE IS THE QUESTION.... ....

What door pricing model do you use for your events (i.e., what do you charge participants)? Does your group do something innovative/creative that works well for your context?

There has been a lot of recent discussion on the use sliding scale. I'm hoping to capture how this can be effectively implement. However, there are also many other innovative ideas such as group/family pricing, pay-it-forward, free dance after so many paid, etc....

If you have a model you'd like to share, please include a few ideas on why you think the model works well. For instance:

--->Do you have effective signage explaining the pricing model? If so… what does it look like?

--->What do the door volunteers say to make your pricing successful? (If you have door volunteers)

---> How have you explained the pricing (e.g., on-mic announcements; email; website) to your community? Do you connect it to your broader financial goals? If you are committed to being transparent about your organization’s finances, how do you do that?

---?What/how do you communicate to first time attendees? (There's a lot to taken in when you're brand new walking in the door!)

If you have ideas you think would benefit other dance, music, and/or song communities, please either share them back onto the list or you can email me directly (Emily@cdss.org). (If you share on the list, they have the potential to help others immediately.) It may take me a few days but I'll definitely follow up with you. Then, once I have a completed draft of the resource, I will circulate it among all contributors before it is finalized and made public.

With thanks!

Emily

PS -> I will also be posting this question on the ECD and Pourparler lists to gather ideas from organizers involved in other traditions. Apologies if you see the message more than once.